“China ready to work with India,” says Beijing ahead of Ajit Doval-Wang Yi meet

China is ready to work with India to implement the important common understandings between the leaders of the two countries and work to bring bilateral relations back on track as soon as possible, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Beijing also emphasised the need to respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, strengthen mutual trust through dialogue and communication and properly settle differences with sincerity and good faith.

Being asked about rebuilding trust between the two countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian, during a press briefing said, “China is ready to work with India to implement the important common understandings between the leaders of China and India, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, strengthen mutual trust through dialogue and communication, properly settle differences with sincerity and good faith, and bring bilateral relations back to the track of stable and healthy development as soon as possible.”

This comes as National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and China Foreign Minister Wang Yi are set to hold the 23rd meeting of the Special Representatives in Beijing today.

The talks are expected to focus on the China-India border issue. These would be the first such high-level talks since December 2019.

The two Special Representatives will discuss the management of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question, the Ministry of External Affairs stated.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed the Parliament last week, that the disengagement between India and China has been fully achieved in Eastern Ladakh through a step-by-step process, culminating in Depsang and Demchok.

He also stressed that the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas is a prerequisite for the development of India-China ties.

In October this year, India and China reached an agreement regarding patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border areas.

The border standoff between India and China began in eastern Ladakh along the LAC in 2020, and was sparked by Chinese military actions. It led to prolonged tensions between the two nations, significantly straining their relations.

During the meeting of Prime Minister Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit held in Russia’s Kazan, PM Modi had said that maintaining peace and stability on the border should remain the priority of the two countries and mutual trust should remain the basis of bilateral ties.